peppermint fudge

This weekend means that December is officially here and that means ... FUDGE. I double-batched this last night while we decorated the Christmas tree and the fudge is already half gone. Gave some to a few friends this morning and it's a great little hostess gift for 2 parties this weekend. I don't remember where I got this recipe years ago, but I altered the recipe and this is how I make it.

[ peppermint fudge ]



FUDGE LAYER

3 tsp. butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
4 c. powdered sugar
6 Tbsp. baking cocoa
1 tsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

PEPPERMINT LAYER

2 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. milk
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
1/4 c. crushed peppermint candy (about 10-12 candies)

Line the bottom and sides of a square baking dish with foil. Grease foil with butter; set aside. In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, cocoa, milk and vanilla. Spread into prepared pan. Chill for an hour until firm. For peppermint layer, beat cream cheese in a small mixing bowl. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, milk and extract. Stir in peppermint candy. Spread evenly over chocolate layer. Chill for an hour or until firm. Using foil, lift fudge from pan. Gently peel off foil and cut into squares.

Notes: A double batch fits well in a 9" x 13" pan and makes about 7-8 dozen little squares of fudge. Also, to crush the peppermint candies, I place them in a thick zip lock bag and use a rubber mallet (soft hammer). This is where my kids like to help!

[ Note added a few days after original post: I just realized I posted this recipe back in May. I must REALLY like this. A LOT. : ) ]

catching up with your questions

Hello, my fine friends! Addressing more of your recent questions today.

But first - a totally random picture that I love. Porter was 2 years old (he's just about 5 now) and this particular winter brought over 100" of snow to Cleveland, where we lived at the time.



Now onto your questions & comments.

[ SURPRISED?? ] Okay, let's just get this out there first. WHY is everyone so surprised that the picture in the post below IS really me!? : ) No, I was never a cheerleader. Gymnastics was my first sport as a youngin' and then basketball & tennis became "my" sports as a teenager. I love being active, but for sure am slacking in this department lately. : (

[ ALBUMS ] Some of you who are new here missed my post about the albums I use. See my Oct. 30 post for more information. They are GORGEOUS and wonderful and classic and yes ... my family albums are REAL RED, which replaced my black ones (that went to a few friends). Yes, I prefer 3-ring. Gives me the flexibility I need for keeping my pages organized, especially since many of them are used for publication.

[ ENVELOPES ] The tall & skinny Christmas card I did last year (you can see it here) went in a standard No. 10 envelope (4 1/8" x 9 1/2"). Not nearly as fun as the envelopes that go with my Christmas card kit! : )

[ KIDS ART ] After I scan my kids' art (see Nov. 14 post), I DO throw most of it out ... after it's been displayed for a while, of course. There are a few things I hang on to, but having it scanned is the best. We use the Epson Perfection 4490. I would LOVE a 12"x 12" scanner. Some day.

[ SKETCHES ] My new Sketches book includes sketches up to June 2006. My sketches published in CK since that time are not included in my new book. PS - This is on sale right now here.

[ PHOTO SHOOTS ] No, I don't do photo shoots for hire. I am NOT professional. It's just something I enjoy doing and it's something I love to share with loved ones. This is a particularly busy picture-taking time since the holidays are here and everyone's working on Christmas cards. I shoot with a Canon 10D.

[ YOUTH TIME CAPSULE ] Here are the pdf files for those of you who wanted to just print what I already designed for this project. I made these for our youth group. See my July 16 post for a reminder of how I put the super simple booklets together. Obviously you need to do all necessary trimming after you print these pages.

/time%20capsule%201-2.pdf

/time%20capsule%203-4.pdf

/time%20capsule%205-6.pdf

[ 3" x 5" PICTURES ] In my video clip post on Nov. 13 I mentioned that a 3" x 5" picture is a great size to put in your cards, for those of you who are using my card kits (which, by the way, DID sell out ... thank you!). Most photo development labs will have a standard 3 1/2" x 5" print and then you would just trim off the extra half-inch. If any of you have rave reviews about a certain online photo printing service that you use, by all means, post a link in the comments. We'd all love to know!

[ CLOTHES & JEWELRY ] You guys crack me up. I can't believe all the questions about what I'm wearing! I'm just like you, getting my stuff from random places. Seriously. I'm all over the place with where I shop (and PS - I am NOT a big shopper! I've been in our local mall, which is a great mall, TWO times in the past year). I like some things at Pac Sun, Aeropostale, Charlotte Russe, H&M ... they keep me young. But then I also have great finds from Target, thrift stores (Last Chance is here in the Phoenix area and is like Nordstrom Rack), and even some international shopping. Some of my most favorite jewelry is from South Africa. Got some great pieces on this trip (September 2006). Wish I brought more cash that day to get more.



Later. : )

will be back soon

I've been playing so much this week with our family. We all enjoyed a terrific, blessed Thanksgiving holiday together. Hope you had a great weekend. I really do.



Will be back to my regular blogging very soon. Make today a fantastic day!

thanksgiving wishes

Happy Thanksgiving, to all those celebrating that this week. I'm so thankful to be together with family during this holiday time. even with the noise & mess level raised a bit. That's part of the fun. : )



A few random things I'm grateful for, in addition to all the BIG things (family, friends, peace, home, health, freedom, the Gospel...):

- 8 hours of sleep last night
- a few new things I learned about my Mac & Photoshop this week ("techie" brother Kevin is here!)
- GREEN grass in the front yard (I live in the desert ... that's something to be thankful for)
- an overcast sky today
- pedicure yesterday (with Lauren, my sister-in-law)
- Christmas decorations are up
- digital photography
- very kind e-mails from some of you (thanks!)
- shipped a very big box of "happy mail" to my friend yesterday & knowing it will cheer her up next week when she gets it

A couple quick notes:

Have you heard of Lain Ehmann's scrapbooking podcast? Her latest interview is with me and you can listen to it here.

Creating Keepsakes is having a huge sale. With savings of up to 65% on some of the most popular items, you won't want to miss it. Sale starts Friday, November 23. It's worth checking out. Click here for the sale.

Have a WONDERFUL rest of the week!

create something

I'm looking forward to helping forty-some 12 to 18 year-old girls from church create an "All About Me" scrapbook this evening. And tomorrow my friend, Erin, and I are going to do a mini photo shoot of each girl. That should be fun. It's all part of a little retreat that Erin has organized. She's amazing. Each girl will win a very cool prize, we're having catered meals, going to a cake decorating class, making jewelry, even having a little inspirational concert. Doesn't that sound fun?

And then ... the weekend only gets better as my brother & sister-in-law and their 5 kids arrive tomorrow, to stay with us for a full week. Yay! We're so excited.

A parting picture for the weekend ...



Enjoy your weekend. Do something creative. Porter's particularly thrilled with his latest creation: "The spaceship".

PS - This may be your last chance to order my Christmas card kit. I just checked and we're down to the last handful. If you're thinking about it, don't delay. Click here to learn more.

new CK cover & new layout

It's kind of weird NOT doing a video today! : ) Thank you for all your kind comments on my "12 Days of Christmas". I'm so glad that many of you got some good ideas out of it.

NEWS FLASH: Our designers have given CK a whole new look and it's HOT. This is what the January issue looks like, and you subscribers will be receiving your copy soon.



What do you think? I seriously LOVE it. Fresh. Current. Clean. Beautiful. Classic. Total YUM factor. If you go here, CK is going to give sneak peaks inside the new issue as well.

In other news ... I did a layout.

This is for Porter's album that is about his first portrait art (stick people). If the design looks familiar, it's very tightly based on my December sketch in the current issue of CK.



I scanned in a bunch of Porter's art, cropped them to the size I wanted (in Photoshop), and printed these as actual photos, like I would any other photos. Plus, I love having scans of his art so that he can always have them. Who knows what fun things we might do with all those scans of his art when he's older?

So as you're using those sketches (I get the impression many of you do), remember that you can use the same sketch over and over and over again. You can get a lot of mileage out of them.

last day of "12 Days of Christmas"

The last video clip for my "12 Days of Christmas" series.



This is the camera we've been using.

I first showed my albums in my Oct. 30th post. Again, a couple links where you can purchase the albums: here and here.

5 sisters

So if you watched yesterday's video clip, you heard the phone ring a few times and you heard me mention that it was probably the Sharps trying to get ahold of me to let me know they were on their way to have their pictures taken. Despite the fact that my camera battery AND my second battery both ran out of juice a little prematurely, I think we managed to get some good pictures.



We love the Sharp family. Don't they just LOOK lovable? Thought I'd share at least something today since I didn't get around to doing my 12th and final video clip for the "12 Days of Christmas" that I've been doing here on my blog. Hoping to make that up to you tomorrow.

video day #11

Pull up a chair. This is a LONG one. Like 8.5 minutes long. Maybe this is my way of celebrating my 100th post on this blog (hooray!). In this video clip, I take you through an entire album, page by page, and ... the phone was ringing, I was getting ready to go take pictures for our friends, the kids kept coming through and ... well ... this is life. : )

video day #10

video day #9

Click here to see how I created our "hybrid" Christmas card last year. It was my first attempt combining my homemade creation with digitally adding photos & text. Instead of mass-producing the cards by hand, I mass-printed the final art, and it sped up the whole process SIGNIFICANTLY.

This is just an alternative idea to those of you interested in a cross between a completely digital card and a completely handmade card. Many of you have already done this sort of thing. If you want to share a link to your design(s), add that in your comments below. I'd love to see what you're doing!

video day #8

Links for you that I mentioned:

Christmas card Kit of the Month is here.
Creating Keepsakes' video clips are here.
List of newly announced Hall of Fame winners here.

Oh! And I told you the WRONG baking temperature for the nutella rolls in my video clip today! Here are the instructions (with the correct baking temp) and a picture. This was originally posted on 5.14.07 and I'm adding a little more info this time.



NUTELLA ROLLS
(these amounts will make 16)

2 pkg. crescent rolls
13 oz. container Nutella (it's a hazelnut spread; found near the peanut butter)
1-2 bananas (optional)
powdered sugar

Spread out a crescent roll triangle, drop a spoonful of Nutella in the middle, add a slice of banana if that sounds good to you, and then wrap it up. Place these on a baking sheet (I'm a big fan of the Pampered Chef baking stones). Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and put them in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes, or whenever they are golden.

new & improved #7

Video quality much better now. Let me know if you have trouble viewing this.

video day #7

I took the original video off because we're going for higher quality videos now. : )

(See post above.)

taco soup

This is the taco soup that I referred to in today's video clip below.



[ TACO SOUP ]

16 oz. can chili beans
16 oz. kidney beans
16 oz. can black beans
8 oz. can tomato sauce
15 oz. can diced stewed tomatoes
16 oz. can whole corn
16 oz. creamed corn
pkg. taco seasoning
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 lb. ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 sm. can chopped green chilies

Do not drain any of the canned foods. Add all ingredients to a crock pot and add taco seasoning to the soup. Brown the ground beef in a pan with the chopped onion and add this combination to the crock pot. Simmer for at least a couple of hours. Serve warm and garnish with optional toppings: shredded cheese, sour cream, tortilla strips (cooked in frying pan with olive oil and grated parmesan cheese). Another idea: Eat with large Fritos chips.

video day #6

technical difficulties

Hey there. I didn't forget about you. I'm just having the hardest time getting my video clips to upload without a lot of effort. And today, it's just not letting me succeed AT ALL. : (

As soon as I work out some technical kinks, you'll be caught-up on my daily video clips for the 12 Days of Christmas fun we're having around here. In fact, today's video clip was done in our kitchen. Check back soon and you'll learn about one of my favorite (and easiest!) recipes.

pics to accompany video #5

[Watch Monday's video (#5) for further explanation on these 2 pictures.]

Here's a fun way to use the chipboard gift tags that come in the November KOTM (there are 20 gift tags included as a bonus). Tie some ribbon around a plate of treats, attach a cute tag and you're done.

If you're just joining us, click here for more information on that kit. As of right now, the Christmas card kits are going fast but they're not gone yet.

Okay, this next picture is a simple ornament idea. Got the wooden blocks at the craft store, painted each side, printed small pictures of the kids, placed a circle page pebble on top of each picture, cut around the page pebble and then adhered a picture/pebble to each side of the block. Finishing touch: Screwed some eyelet screws in the top & tied some ribbon on.

For Porter's 1st birthday (2003), all of his little friends were too young for games & structured activities so WE (the moms/my BF's) made a craft - these ornaments.

video day #5

video day #4

video day #3

To see those wall transfers actually ON a wall, check out my posts on May 22 and 30.

On the 2nd Day of Christmas...

[ THIS JUST IN ] Not even 24 hours into this thing (my KOTM going on sale) and half of the kits are gone. Most people are buying multiple kits, which makes them go even faster. So ... you may want to act fast if you want to send these cards this Christmas.

[ PS ] Can't seem to figure out why my video clips are appearing twice in each post. So weird. Anyway, they're the same thing so no need to watch both.

[ ONE MORE THING ] A special note to Suzanne in Flower Mound, TX ... who I called "Jennifer" in my video clip. Sorry for the mix-up. Did your husband tell you I called? It's really YOU that won. Not Jennifer. (wink)

Christmas cards are now available

You can now purchase my card kits here or here. The price is $13.95 per kit. Watch the video clip for all the information. Today I'm kicking off the 12 Days of Christmas, so check back daily for 12 days.